The Guardian
by sbjnr
Summary: Contains spoilers for 5th book. Sirius fic. I'm not sayin anymore for those who haven't read it. COMPLETE YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO READ THE NEW AN Please RR! NOT SLASH! Some mild cursing in later chapters.
1. The Afterlife

The Afterlife  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nor do I own Sirius Black.whom this fic is about  
  
A/N: This is MY version of what COULD happen next  
  
Rating: I dunno.probably PG13 .just in case  
  
I opened my eyes. I could not just believe what had happened. I'd been taunting that horrific witch, and she's actually hit me. And I'd died??? My last sight had been Harry, he was running down a flight of stairs toward me. Was that Dumbledore behind him? I never knew. Lupin caught Harry, and I'd fallen back.through the veil.  
  
Bright lights swirled everywhere.I didn't know where I was going. Somewhere, though, I'd left my body behind. Weird feeling that was. I was holding onto my wand.and my spirit seemed to be wearing the same thing I'd died in.  
  
It was a weird thing to say.even now, I'm dead. Kind of a shock.but if I had to choose a way to die it would have been in battle.  
  
After awhile, the lights cleared, and I was standing in the middle of this lawn, and there was a castle behind it. Where exactly am I? I thought. I walked up to the gatekeeper. He let me in and without even asking me who I was said, "Sirius Black.we've been expecting you." I was so shocked that he knew my name.it was a creepy feeling.  
  
The man nodded toward the castle. "Go in, they'll point you the right way." What else was I to do? I opened the big heavy door. There seemed to be many souls there, like me, all being led by someone, some crying, being reunited with people they knew. Most were crying, some were looking through these huge telescopes. Some looked into mirrors, or out windows. I saw that most carried wands. I looked up. There was a sign that said, "Welcome to the Wizard's End of Heaven. If you are being expected by someone, please step to the left. And that means you too, Sirius."  
  
Once again I'm shocked. I stepped to the left, and two people hurried toward me. I had no idea who they were. "Sirius Black, I presume?" on said.  
  
"I guess you presume right." I answered.  
  
"Follow us." Once again, what choice did I have? I certainly did NOT want to follow these two. They were freaking me out. They led me to a room. I sat in the room for what seemed like hours, when two other people walked through the door. One had auburn hair, and bright green eyes. The other with the same untidy black hair.  
  
"Lily? James?" I asked.  
  
"Sirius?" he said.  
  
She smiled and said, "It's good to have you here."  
  
James shook my hand but I was still only halfway there. Suddenly I remembered something.  
  
"HARRY!" I screamed, "I have to help him!!! He's with Voldemort!! I shouldn't have left him, I have to help him!"  
  
I leapt for the door. James caught me. "He'll be fine. Dumbledore's got him out of this one. In fact, he got him out a while ago. He's back at the school. The rest of them got out ok."  
  
"So why did I.?" I asked. I was furious at myself for dieing. Harry needed me!! And now I was forced to believe the Snape was right all along, that I was useless.  
  
"Why does anyone die?" Lily asked. "Everything happens for a reason."  
  
I was stunned.  
  
Another person joined us in the room. I didn't know him either. But he introduced himself as Nick.  
  
"I am correct in saying that you are Sirius Black?"  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
"I am Nick. I am here to explain your mission."  
  
"Excuse me.my WHAT?"  
  
"You're mission. Everyone here has one. Theirs is over now." He said, gesturing to Lily and James, "Their mission was to watch over and protect you."  
  
"Fine job you did today," I said with slight bitterness. My best friends had let me die.it was unbelieveable!! And they knew I was watching over their son!!  
  
"We had no choice in the matter," James said, "We have no power over when you died. We just had to be a guardian."  
  
"Ok?" I wasn't quite sure where all this was headed.and wondered what the crazy mission I'd go through was.  
  
Nick started talking again.  
  
"Sirius, you're mission is almost exactly what you had to do on earth."  
  
"What might that be?"  
  
"Can't you guess?" added James with a laugh.  
  
"Right about now, I'm not in the mood for guessing games.you know.as is I just DIED, I am not really in the mood for well, really, ANY games."  
  
"Calm down, Sirius. This is a mission you'll like." Lily added.  
  
"And hey, don't get mad at me. It's not my fault you died.and I'm your best friend." James sounded wounded.  
  
"Sorry"  
  
"It's ok!"  
  
"Ahem.As I was saying, you're mission is to be a guardian. A guardian to the Boy, Harry Potter."  
  
My eyes went wide and I almost fell off the chair I was sitting on. This was EXACTLY what I'd been doing when I was living.only now I could be even better at it. Now that the Ministry wasn't after me, and all.  
  
James and Lily were smiling. They'd known it was coming.  
  
"So.what happens when my mission's completed, like theirs?"  
  
"Well.they get to go to a higher place.without any missions." Nick answered.  
  
"So, when do I start?"  
  
"Well.now, technically.you can see him whenever you want.through mirrors.telescopes.in fact, I think you can use walls, too, if you're really good. WE just need to get you to your room. Lily and James, I'll let you take care of that."  
  
And Nick walked out.  
  
I gave Lily and James a weird look. The smiled, and led me to my room.  
  
I was surprised.it was a lot like somewhere I'd once dreamed of living. Nowhere fantastically fancy, but not my mother's house.and I opened the closet to find that there was clothes and almost everything I'd ever owned in there. A small bed was in the corner, and a bathroom on the other side. Lily and James left, soon after, leaving me to myself.  
  
I dug my hands into my pockets, and looked at a mirror. I wanted to see how he was doing.  
  
Sure enough.I saw him on the train home, Hermione and Ron beside him. He still looked pretty shaken up. Suddenly, I came across the mirror in my pocket. The two-way one. I hope he hadn't tried to contact me.if so he'd had a huge disappointment. But I could talk to him through the two way mirror.and he could talk to me.  
  
This guardian job might not be so bad after all.  
  
And right now, I guess you could say I'm tired.dieing sure took a lot out of me.sounds kind of funny, but it really isn't when you think about it. I hope I can watch over him in dreams, though, cause I'm really tired now.  
  
Good night Harry. 


	2. Mourning Still

Chapter 2: Harry at Home  
  
Rating: PG13 for later chapters  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
A/N: forgot to put this before.please R+R and in case you were wondering.Sirius was my favorite character.also.Sirius parts will most likely all be in 1st person narriative.and Harry parts will mostly be in third person.  
  
Harry woke up, shaking, and drenched in a cold sweat, on the first day of summer vacation. He'd had a horrible nightmare. Only these were different from the other ones he'd had. They still took place in the department of mysteries.but now, instead of not getting to the door.he got through, and relived the entire thing.  
  
He'd woken up at the exact time that the jet of red light had killed Sirius. He grabbed his glasses, and looked at the clock. 4AM. Whenever he'd had a nightmare before, he'd usually write to Sirius about it.and wait for him to write back saying it was just a dream and if he was really worried to talk to Dumbledore.  
  
Now.he didn't know. Dumbledore sure wouldn't be the person he'd talk to. Even though he knew it wasn't Dumbledore who physically killed Sirius.if he'd only told Harry about the prophecy the year before! Then he would have known to watch out for his dreams.  
  
And another voice awoke inside him.  
  
What about you? It said. If you'd opened the mirror sooner, you'd have been able to talk to him and know where he was.  
  
He looked over at the mirror. It was sitting on his nightstand. He hadn't the heart to throw it out, even though he couldn't contact Sirius on it. It felt like a last link to him.a link he couldn't break. And something inside told him to keep it.  
  
He walked over to the window. Hedwig was gone, off taking a message to the Weasley's. Ron had already written to him, saying that he could come to their house whenever he wanted. Harry wasn't sure exactly how he'd get there.but he hoped soon he would get a way to.  
  
He walked over to his bookshelf. He looked at the small leather-bound book that Hagrid had given to him at the end of his first year. He'd been fighting with himself whether or not he should look at the pictures.  
  
He pulled it out. He wasn't going back to sleep soon, after all. He let it fall open to a page. It happened to be the one of his parents wedding. They were smiling at each other, and Sirius was there, shaking his hair out of his eyes.  
  
He shut the book. Even though that was his only way to see Sirius, it was still too much. The shock was still right at the surface. The pain that his aunt and uncle had caused was nothing like the pain that Bellatrix Lestrange had caused.  
  
And he realized something. Neville's parents had been as good as killed by her, and Harry's almost parent had been killed by her.  
  
White-hot hatred filled him as he thought of that. He wanted to kill her, more than he'd ever wanted to kill anyone. It was weird.he wanted to kill her almost more than he wanted to defeat Voldemort. She had killed the person who was the closest thing to a parent he had. The person he trusted the most, the person he could talk to about anything. Yes, Voldemort had killed his parents, and he was very hateful to him for that.but Bellatrix had killed the person that was more like a father to him than ANYONE had ever been.including his own father.  
  
He walked back to his bed, as Hedwig flew through the window. An envelope was tried to her, this time, not just a scroll.  
  
He took the envelope, and gave Hedwig some Owl Treats. Inside the envelope was a letter.and some green ash like stuff. He opened the letter.  
  
Harry, I hope you're ok. We're all at the Burrow for now, and we've sent you some Floo Powder in case you want to come over. I know you haven't been at your Aunt and Uncle's for long.but you can come whenever you want. Hermione is coming at the end of this week, and staying for the summer. Everyone in the Order is here, except for Dumbledore, who is at Hogwarts. (Yes, that means Snape is here.needless to say I'm NOT happy about that. He's supposed to be leaving by Thursday, though.) I hope you can come soon. And if you can't, whenever you can is a good time for us. See You Soon! --Ron P.S. (Mom wants to add something) How are you doing after it happened? Are you feeling ok? You can talk to us about anything, I hope you know that, Harry. And it doesn't matter whether it's now, or ten years from now. Come soon, dear, get out of that dreadful Muggle house.-Mrs. Weasley  
  
Harry closed the note. There seemed to be a lot of Floo Powder in there.  
  
And he knew he would go as soon as he could to the Weasley's. Someday after Thursday, maybe. Hermione was coming on Friday, maybe he'd show up then. After all.this was his once a year returning home now.so on Friday he should be free to go wherever he wanted.  
  
After reading the letter.even the P.S. that he didn't want to think about right now, he felt calmer, and he felt he could fall back to sleep.  
  
He climbed back over to his bed and fell onto it. His last thought before falling back to sleep was:  
  
Good night, Sirius.  
  
A/N: How does everyone like it? Is this a good idea? I like writing this story so I hope it is. And I'm a new person here.please be nice in whatever you say! Otherwise.I hope you liked it! 


	3. Ashley

Chapter 3  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. But however, I do own Ashley and Nick, who are my characters.  
  
Rating: PG13 for later chapters  
  
A/N: This fic might have a little supernatural in it.I'm not sure where it's gonna come in.but it will be there.and since there are only two genre spaces.I'm putting it here  
  
I woke up, I guess the next morning. Assuming there was still morning and night in this place. Got dressed, as is I'd fallen asleep in the same clothes I'd died in. (That's still creepy to think about)  
  
I looked out my window. No one had quite told me how this would work.with the mirrors it was saying a name. With windows? Who knows? I looked down, and was surprised to see that the lawn had disappeared. Instead it was a loooooooooooooooong way down. I was thoroughly glad by window was closed, otherwise I probably would have fallen out.  
  
I saw his house. I think it was his at least, I'd only ever been near his house, once, in the dead of the night. That's when I scared the life out of him.well.not the life of course.but you get the idea.  
  
It was almost as if someone had wiped the roof away, cause I could suddenly see inside the house. He was sitting, writing a letter. His owl was flying around his room. That annoying aunt and uncle of his didn't seem to be there.  
  
He finished the letter, and tied it to the owl's leg. I wondered if I was ever going to be able to hear him. Maybe this job didn't incorporate voices. I listened, or at least tried to. I couldn't hear very well. I knew I should have asked Fred and George about those Extendable Ears, I thought bitterly. I managed to make out the words "Ron" and "Before Friday".  
  
What was he going to do before Friday?!  
  
Not that I could do much about it. I was up here, and he was down there. Actually, I never asked whether I could go down.as kind of a guardian angel. That might be easier than straining to hear, and attempting not to fall out of windows.  
  
I got up. Enough with the very high window. Now I knew why there were so many telescopes here. At least that was easier than fearing for your.your what? And inner voice taunted me. Your.death? It had a good point. But even so, I was pretty sure that falling out of a window would NOT be my cup of tea.  
  
I walked back to the main area. Another person would step through the arched doorway every once in awhile, to a crowd of people waiting for them. It made me wonder.why was I alone when I got here? Lily and James met me later.but when I first arrived.?  
  
I walked over to an open telescope. And, amazingly, even though I was pointed in the complete opposite direction from where I was in my room, I could see him. He was walking along a road, alone. He'd made it to a park. He was swinging.I could be here for days. Oh, believe me, he's my godson, and I care for him.but do I have to do this 24/7?  
  
Considering I had this and other questions.I figured I should find that Nick guy again. That might help a bit.  
  
I turned away from the telescope. I walked over to what seemed to be a front desk and asked, "Where can I find Nick?". I knew it was hopeless.there had to be a thousand "Nick"s in this room alone. But the woman at the desk seemed to know who I was talking about.  
  
"Go down that hallway-" she pointed behind her, at a hallway that had just appeared-"and it's the second door on the right."  
  
"Thanks," I said, and turned away. I'd once heard somewhere that you knew you were in trouble, when you were told to go down the hall and turn to the right. AS I turned around, I saw a woman with blonde hair, and grey eyes appear through the archway. She was beautiful.and she looked slightly confused.  
  
And, I noticed, she didn't have a big welcoming party.like me.  
  
She looked around. Maybe she didn't know she was dead? It was a possibility. I knew I was dying as it happened.I could feel it. But what if you died instantly.would you feel it?  
  
She walked up to me.  
  
"Hi, I'm Ashley Monroe. Um.not to be rude or anything.but where am I.and what happened?"  
  
"Hi, I'm Sirius Black. You're not being rude.I just got here yesterday. This might come as a shock-it did for me at least-but this is heaven. And I'm not exactly sure how you died."  
  
Her eyes went wide. "Excuse me.?" she said weakly. "I'm DEAD?!"  
  
He voice had become very strong all of a sudden.  
  
"Yeah. All of us are here. That's why this is heaven."  
  
"So.like.I'm not living.?"  
  
"Not down there, you're not." She looked about read to faint.  
  
"Look, I'm going to see my friend-or maybe he's my boss?-Nick. He'll know what's going to happen. As I've said.I've only been here a day."  
  
She nodded. Her eyes were still extremely wide. I led her down the hall to Nick's office. There seemed to be a bell of some sort, so I rang it, and we were admitted.  
  
"Hello Sirius. Hello Ashley. I see you two have met."  
  
"Yeah," I said, "Um.I had a question, and she just got here and is in a state of shock.so we decided to come to you."  
  
It felt weird saying that. It's been awhile since I've had to depend on somebody else.or ask someone for help for that matter. I've always been pretty independent.plus I'd gotten used to Harry always coming to me whenever he needed to ask something  
  
"Well.Ashley, since you look close to a second death, we'll start with you. First, I assume, you want to know how exactly, you died."  
  
She nodded, and looked a little freaked out that Nick knew what she wanted to know. And a phrase he'd spoken in there creeped me out a bit.  
  
"Well, you were flying, and you lost control of the broom and you fell off. You did an impressive dive for about 500ft or so, and then you hit concrete. POW!" this was all included with his hands motioning her falling and then hitting the concrete.  
  
"Must you be so graphic?" she said, gulping.  
  
I was suddenly glad Nick did not have to describe my death. I could almost hear it now.  
  
"You were dueling Bellatrix Lestrange, and then she threw a curse at you, and it hit you WHAMO! right in the chest. You fell and then slid through the curtain."  
  
Nick smiled. "We all have a mission here, though. You can ask Sirius here about those. He's had his for a day now-"  
  
"Actually-" I interrupted. "That's what I have a question about." "Well, fire away, because she might have the same questions."  
  
Was it me, or was Nick in a more cheerful mood today?  
  
"Well.I was wondering. Do I have to watch him every second of the day? And what about listening to him? And um." I broke off for a second.this would be the hardest to ask. "What-could-if-Is there a way that I could watch him from down there?"  
  
"Every second of the day? No. Only when you want to, or if you feel like something is wrong.believe me, when something is you'll KNOW. You can hear him, yes, that just takes practice, and if you mean, could you be like a guardian angel and visit him down there for awhile."  
  
He paused. I waited, nervously, and shook hair out of my eyes.  
  
"Yes.but not for long. You have to come up here again.you are only allowed to be down there for two hours at a time."  
  
I nodded.  
  
Ashley kept looking from me to him like she was watching a Quidditch player fly back and forth across the field.  
  
"What's my mission?" she said.  
  
She was definitely a lot more accepting that I was. I flipped out yesterday, when I found out about the missions. And you'd think she'd be more shaken up, as is she just found out she died, and I knew I had.  
  
"You're mission is the same a Sirius's. That's why I was happy that you two had met. Of course, I knew it was going to happen.but I was still happy. You, Ashley, will have the mission of watching over someone, as he is. Only you will be watching over his best friend, Ronald Weasley."  
  
That was good.I'd be spending a lot of time with Ashley it seemed.  
  
"Sirius?" Nick said.  
  
"Yes?" "Was there anything else?"  
  
This guy was weird.he must have been a seer or something in his past life.  
  
"What did you mean by 'second death'?"  
  
"You know.dying here.again."  
  
"We can die AGAIN?!" my voice had gone strangely high pitched, almost strangled. Could you blame me? Dying was the worst thing that had ever happened to me.why would I want it to happen again? Beside me Ashley had gone even more pale than she had been before, if that was possible. She looked like she was going to faint again.  
  
Nick smiled at our reactions. "Just be careful, and you'll be fine."  
  
Ashley and I looked at each other. Both of us agreed that was somewhat of a dismissal. We turned to go. Nick stopped us.  
  
"Sirius?"  
  
We both turned back.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
He tossed me a key, and I managed to catch it.  
  
"Take her to her room, you should find it quite easily."  
  
I nodded. How the hell was I supposed to find her room.when I wasn't sure I could make it back to mine?  
  
But the door of Nick's office had closed, and we were standing in the main hall again. I walked down the hallway that I'd come out of this morning. I looked at the numbers on the rooms. 1154.1155.1156. I stopped there. I looked at the key in my hand. Engraved in the metal on it was 1157. Struck on an inspiration I stuck my hand in my pocket. Besides the mirror, there was a key in there. How it got there.well.probably Nick only knows. The number on my key was 1156.  
  
We were right next to each other.  
  
I must have stared at the two keys in my hand for awhile, because Ashley tapped me on the shoulder.  
  
"Sirius?"  
  
I jumped, and looked at her, questioning. She gestured to the keys.  
  
"Oh! Right!"  
  
I opened the door to her room. She yawned.  
  
"Tired?"  
  
"A little"  
  
"I was to when I first found out. It takes a lot out of you."  
  
"No.REALLY?!" she said, in mock surprise.  
  
I gave her a look. And she walked in.  
  
"I'm going to sleep.'Night Sirius see ya tomorrow!" she said.trying to sound bright and cheery.  
  
"Night Ash." I answered, and she pulled the door shut. 


	4. A quick Author's Notice

A/N:  
  
Ok...taking a break for an A/N cause I put up chapter 3 without reading reviews. Big mistake. So here goes:  
  
To everyone who said that they missed Sirius and can't believe that Rowling killed him off (which is like, everyone): ME TOO!! And I miss him very much. He was my favorite character, and I cried over him dieing to.and as of now I'm still not fully over it. I think I would have rather anyone died but him.  
  
To everyone who wants it to be a series: It is. More coming soon (obviously.if you've read to chapter 3 you've figured that out by now ;)  
  
Blue-eyes: The romance part comes later.but it's coming.and so is the supernatural.it will be there.don't worry. I don't want to give any pairings away.but major hint.Sirius will most likely end up with someone unless I get floods of reviews saying "NOOOO!!!"  
  
DemonWitch666:Don't worry.that mirror will be repaired. I know how it's going to happen.and it will happen soon.  
  
JadeMoonWing: Yes, I have the same "." problem. And I have no idea how to fix it.:(  
  
Sailor Juno: Yeah.I'm definitely going to change the title.it's going to be "The Guardian" for now  
  
That's it! Thank all of you SO MUCH for your reviewing. Keep reviewing. I'll be back to the story in the next chapter.  
  
p.s. the "sb" in my pen name stands for Sirius Black 


	5. The Locked Door

Chapter 4  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.  
  
Rating: PG or so  
  
A/N: Although it says it's chapter 5 on the website.......since I put that lovely A/N it is chapter 4.  
  
Friday dawned, and Harry woke up. It was the first day since Sirius had died that he woke up happy. He was going to the Burrow today. He didn't know exactly when he'd get a chance to go there.but he would get there. And he would go today.  
  
He looked around his room, and realized he desperately needed to pack. He started on his desk. Books, quills, parchment, and the photo album went into his trunk. He cleared off his floor, where there was all sorts of clothes, and more books. He went to his closet, where there was the broomstick servicing kit that Hermione had given him in third year. His Firebolt was there too. He grabbed both and put them next to his trunk. He went onto his nightstand. There was the picture of Sirius, and his parents, on his parents wedding day. He'd put it there so it was almost like they were watching over him. Then he came to the mirror, shattered into about a thousand pieces.  
  
He breathed in. It was his last link to Sirius.....broken or not. Even so, he knew he should just throw it out. He swept all the pieces into his hand. As he walked over to the garbage, he all of a sudden felt something pulling him back, and he felt almost as if a voice had screamed into his mind:  
  
KEEP IT!  
  
He jumped. Then the holding back was gone, and the voice had gone as quickly as it had come.  
  
Normally he didn't listen to voices that randomly appeared in his head. He wasn't that crazy. But this time the voice had seemed so completely urgent and powerful.....like possibly something horrible would happen if he didn't listen.  
  
He got a small bag that had once held Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, and put the shattered mirror in there. He tucked that into his trunk, too. He looked at his watch. Barely 10:30 am. He had a feeling that Hermione hadn't gotten there yet, so he waited.  
  
The Dursleys were up already, and gone. They had taken Dudley to a boxing match, as he'd joined the summer league this year. He had no idea how long they'd be gone. They'd left around 6:30, when his uncle had called up to make sure he was awake. He'd mumbled a yes, and once he heard the door slam, he fell immediately back to sleep, and he'd just woken up again.  
  
He lugged his stuff down to the fireplace around noon. He couldn't wait any longer. Whether Hermione had arrived or not, he was leaving now. He wrote a fast note to his aunt and uncle, explaining where he was, and that he'd be there all summer. Then he grabbed a handful of the Floo Powder, and shifted his grip so he was holding everything, and jumped in the fireplace, screaming "The Burrow!"  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
Of course nothing happened, he thought bitterly, The Dursley's house isn't connected to the Floo Network.  
  
He looked in the fireplace. He couldn't really tell what was Floo Powder and what was ash.  
  
Then he looked in the envelope. There looked like there would be just enough for one more journey. Where could he go to get to the Burrow? What other wizards or witches lived around him? Then suddenly, he saw a painting of cats on the wall of his aunt and uncle's house.  
  
Mrs. Figg! He thought. Of course! She was a witch! There was now just the matter of getting there with all his stuff....in broad daylight. Impossible. He'd be seen. He'd have to wait for tonight, when it was darker.  
  
At 9:30 that night, the Dursley's still weren't home. Harry then decided that it was dark enough to venture to Mrs. Figg's house. He must have been feeling a little paranoid, because he kept feeling like someone was following him. He didn't see anybody though, but he did look over his shoulder frequently on his way to Mrs. Figg's house. Once he'd gotten there, and lugged his stuff onto the porch, he rang the bell.  
  
No one answered. It had never even occurred to him that she might possibly be out. This cannot be happening, he thought. Then the door opened. The funny thing was, it seemed to open by itself.....no one else was in there. He checked the back to the lock on the door. Well, that was creepy. The door was still locked. Then, with a gust of wind from the outside, the door swung shut. That was even creepier.  
  
But he didn't have time to dwell on things like that now. He went to her fire place. Please let this work, he begged silently, please!  
  
He grabbed the final handful of Floo Powder. He took all his stuff in the fireplace with him. He dropped the Floo Powder, and screamed "The Burrow!"  
  
And it worked! As he spun around, passing fire place and fire grate, he silently thanked whoever it was that hooked up the Floo network that they hooked it up to Squib houses.  
  
The trip was nearing an end, and he felt a jolt of pain, as he hit the floor-hard-of the Weasley's fireplace. He tumbled out, with his broom, and trunk and the kit. He heard footsteps running at him. Ron and Hermione appeared at the door of the room.  
  
"Harry!" they both exclaimed at the same time. And Harry noticed that Hermione didn't run over to him and practically kill him hugging him this time.  
  
"Hello!" he said, walking farther into the room. "Where is everyone?" He'd also noticed that only Hermione and Ron seemed to be here.  
  
"Everyone went out for a walk, but Ron found Hedwig in his room two days ago with a note saying you were coming today, so we stayed behind." Hermione said.  
  
"Oh," Harry said vaguely.  
  
"So-erm-how are you doing?" Ron asked, looked both very uncomfortable, and very red.  
  
"Good," Harry said, "And if you want to talk about Sirius.....I'm not ready yet."  
  
"Ok," Hermione said.  
  
The three stood in an uncomfortable silence for awhile.  
  
Then Ron turned to Hermione and looked her in the eye. She returned his gaze. Harry looked from one to the other, wondering what he was missing, it looked like they were having a conversation with their eyes. Then they both nodded, and turned back to him.  
  
"Right," Ron said.  
  
"So, um, Ron and I have some news," Hermione began.  
  
"Yes?" Harry said.  
  
"Well, we've decided.." Ron began.  
  
Hermione took Ron's hand and said, "We've decided that we're going to be more than friends."  
  
"WHAT?!" Harry screamed.  
  
"Ron asked me out just before you came and I accepted," Hermione said in a rush.  
  
Harry's eyes went wide. His best friends were going out with each other? That was ok, he guessed. It wasn't that he liked Hermione was it? Although, he did feel insanely jealous right now.....  
  
"Wow," was all he managed to say.  
  
"Look, Harry, we know this is a lot, but-"  
  
Harry cut Ron off. "No, no! It's not that I'm not happy for you! Wow, I'm really happy that you two are together."  
  
"Really?" Hermione asked.  
  
But Harry didn't get to answer, because right at that moment, Ginny, Fred, George, Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, Lupin, and Mad-Eye walked in.  
  
He was met by a chorus of "HARRY!!!" and "When did you get here?! How did you get here?!" and "What exactly is going on?!"  
  
He sat back. He assumed that he would have a lot of explaining to do when everyone calmed down. But until then, he sighed. Ron and Hermione's news was almost overbearingly HUGE. He wasn't lying when he said he was happy for them.....but he wasn't exactly telling the truth, either. 


	6. The First Trip Back Down

Chapter 5  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
Rating: PG or so  
  
A/N: This explains a bit of the last chapter.  
  
I sat straight up in bed. I really still not used to this guardian job. Nick had informed me at some point, that I would know what Harry was feeling. And it came overwhelmingly at that moment. He was happy. Very happy. I looked at the calendar on my wall. It was Friday.  
  
There were three words that came into my head at the moment, "Ron" and "Before Friday". What was he going to do?! Although I could know what he was feeling, I couldn't read his thoughts directly. I had a feeling this was going to be my first visit back down since I'd died. And I was NOT going to go alone.  
  
I walked to the door next to mine after I'd done my normal morning routine things. I knocked on Ashley's door. She walked out.  
  
"Did you feel it?" she asked nervously.  
  
I nodded. I didn't need her to tell me what she was asking about. She didn't need to tell me that Ron and Harry had both woken up to mutual feelings of happiness.  
  
"Think we can handle a trip down?" I asked.  
  
She gulped. Then nodded. And then we ran to Nick's office.  
  
We burst in the door.  
  
"NICK!" we shouted together.  
  
Nick wasn't facing us, and he jumped a mile.  
  
"What?!" he asked.  
  
"We want to get back down. To where Harry is," I said.  
  
He looked from Ashley to me, and then back to Ashley.  
  
"Is something wrong?" he asked.  
  
I stopped. Not really....actually......things must be pretty good if Harry was feeling happy. I just wanted to know what was going on. I had a feeling that the two of them were plotting something.  
  
Nick grinned. "I can get you down. Just tell me where," he said.  
  
"Number 4 Privet Drive!" I said.  
  
Nick's grin got wider. "Ok! Now I'd hang onto something....."  
  
"WHAT?!" Ashley screamed.  
  
But before Nick could answer, we were falling. It was amazing, almost like flying, but at the same time it was scarier than the ride up. At least the was slower and didn't end in pavement.  
  
Ashley's eyes were closed, she was falling a few feet away from me. I could hear her saying, "Oh this is it! My first day dead, and I'm already gonna have a second death!"  
  
She certainly was, I thought, If she kept screaming like that.  
  
"Ashley! Shut it!" I shouted over to her.  
  
"Why???" she asked.  
  
"Calm down! Do you think Nick would let us do this if we were going to die our second deaths?!"  
  
"Right now, I'm thinking yes!!"  
  
I suddenly remembered that she died while falling. That's why this bothered her so much. There was no hope whatsoever in calming her down. I reached out my hand to her.  
  
"Hang on," I said, "We've got a long way down."  
  
She took my hand, nervously, and I was surprised that she did at all. Another thought had struck my mind. Ashley knew my name......yet she wasn't scared.....  
  
"Ashley?" I asked  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Why aren't you scared of me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Me, Sirius Black. I'm a convicted mass murderer. Yet you're being perfectly nice to me......like you're not scared of me.....cause as far as I knew the world down there IS scared of me."  
  
Ashley sighed and took a minute to answer.  
  
"I guess it's cause the first place I saw you," she said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I knew who you were when you told me your name, but I wasn't really scared because we were in heaven. The only logical thing was that you hadn't really been a mass murderer."  
  
My eyes widened. I'd never thought of that. I smiled at her.  
  
"Why?" she said, taunting. "Do you want me to be scared of you?"  
  
"No," I said, "You're the only friend I've got now."  
  
She smiled. And it was true that she was my only friend here, now. Lily and James had gone to the higher place. I hadn't seen them since I first arrived.  
  
Suddenly, she looked down in alarm. The ground was coming at us incredibly fast now. Ashley turned a nasty shade of green.  
  
"Whatever you do, do NOT panic!" I yelled.  
  
Too late. Ashley screamed and let go of my hand. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the landing.  
  
When I'd opened my eyes, I practically gouged them out. Oh, wonderful, I thought. My first 25 seconds back on earth are spent in a thorn bush. Oh all the places I had to land.....I had landed on a rose bush with extremely long thorns.  
  
I struggled with the thorns for awhile, and when I managed to get myself out, with MANY cuts and scratches, I set off to look for Ashley. I scanned the front lawn. I couldn't see her anywhere. Then suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and let out a yelp. Ashley started laughing.  
  
"You know you could kill a person like that?!" I growled.  
  
"Good news, Sirius, you don't have to worry! You're already dead!"  
  
She was still laughing, like almost scaring me into my second death was hysterically funny.  
  
"Where did you land?" I asked.  
  
She turned serious again.  
  
"On the lawn," she answered.  
  
Of course the lawn. She'd landed on the lawn, and I'd landed on what seemed at first to be a knife drawer. She started laughing again.  
  
"Come on," I growled.  
  
"Oh come on, Sirius, it was funny, you have to admit."  
  
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."  
  
We walked up to Harry's room then. Because, even though I'd landed in a patch of thorns the size of Azkaban, we were at Number 4, Privet Drive. I tried to get in the door, and found it was locked.  
  
"Oh Bloody.....," I muttered, rolling my eyes.  
  
Ashley tapped me on the shoulder before I finished.  
  
"Can we walk through walls?"  
  
I stared at the wall, then looked at her.  
  
"I don't know. It's worth a shot, than pulling at a door that won't open."  
  
She took a step back, and ran quite clearly, through the wall.  
  
"Nice!" I heard her muffled yell.  
  
I took a step back, and ran through, where she had. I was in.  
  
We looked up the stairs. That was where his room was. WE ran up them.  
  
I got to his room. He was holding pieces of a broken mirror that looked suspiciously like.......no.....it couldn't be.......but it was!  
  
"NOOOOO!!!" I shouted, quite aware that he couldn't hear me.  
  
"What?" Ashley asked.  
  
My eyes were focused on the mirror. He was going to throw it out! This obviously meant that he'd tried to contact me and couldn't......and now he thought the mirror wouldn't work. Obviously, he didn't know it could be repaired.  
  
Keep it, I thought. Keep it! Keep it! Keep it! I willed him to keep it. Finally in my head I shouted to myself  
  
KEEP IT!  
  
He stopped short, and behind me, Ashley did also.  
  
"What did you do?" she asked  
  
"I have no idea."  
  
Harry, meanwhile, had turned and put the broken shards of mirror in a Bertie Bott's bag, and put it in his trunk. He looked thoroughly scared.  
  
Ashley tugged my shirt sleeve.  
  
"Sirius.....we have to go......it's been two hours....."  
  
I gulped and nodded.  
  
"Bye Harry," I whispered.  
  
A gust of wind flew us back up to the sky, and when we were back up, I began watching him again.  
  
The Floo Powder wouldn't work, and he looked pretty annoyed.  
  
"Of COURSE it's not working," I said to no one in particular, "They're muggles. They're not hooked up to the Floo network."  
  
He got an idea then. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but I had a pretty good idea that it involved Mrs. Figg, the only other half wizarding kind on his block.  
  
He walked over to her house at about 9:30. He tried the door. Locked. I had an idea.  
  
Running back to Nick, I asked him for another time down.  
  
"Five minutes," he said.  
  
"That's all I need," I said.  
  
He nodded, and I was down there, perhaps faster than I had gone before.  
  
I hit the ground again, painfully, but not as painfully, as I had not landed on a thorn bush this time.  
  
I got up, dizzily, and ran toward Mrs. Figg's house as fast as I could.  
  
He was still trying the blasted door when I ran through the wall, unlocked it, swung it open and locked it again. I felt the gust of wind coming to pick me up, and I grabbed the door and shut it, as I saw Harry make his way toward the fireplace.  
  
I got back to the sky, and Ashley ran toward me.  
  
"Ron became more and more happy as the evening went on," she said.  
  
"Let's watch," I said.  
  
We ran to a telescope, and looked through.  
  
"It's blurry," she said, "I can't see."  
  
"That's funny," I said, "I can see fine." I wiped off the lens. "Try now."  
  
She looked through.  
  
"Nope," she said. "You watch, tell me what you see."  
  
I nodded, and as I did, Harry's feeling's became.....disappointed....almost jealous......  
  
And Ashley's eyes got wider and wider...  
  
"What?" I asked.  
  
"Shh!" she hissed.  
  
I shrugged and turned back to the telescope.  
  
When I'd stopped looking, she looked at me, her eyes wide, her face bright.  
  
"Sirius....," she whispered, "I just heard everything that went on down there....." 


	7. Mrs Weasley's worries

Chapter 6  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Or any character that is in these fictions besides Ashley and Nick.  
  
Rating: PG or so  
  
A/N: I think I'm going to just go through the summer for this fic. I don't know where I'll go after that.  
  
Harry woke up the next morning with sunlight streaming through the window. He reviewed the last night's events in his head. He was on the floor, in a sleeping bag, in Ron's room. He'd come to the Burrow by Floo Powder last night. He'd somehow been able to use Mrs. Figg's house to get there, and a locked door had swung open...  
  
He suddenly got chills. What HAD made that door open? He looked over at Ron, who was still asleep, and debated whether to tell him what had happened. Then he remembered something else that had upset him last night. Ron and Hermione were going out.  
  
He sat up and grabbed his glasses. Pigwideon, noticing that someone was awake, began hooting and flying all around his cage. Hedwig had flown in the night before, after delivering a letter to Hagrid. And Harry had realized that he had forgotten one thing: Hedwig's cage. He'd put her in with Pig, though, and even though she was nowhere near happy with that, she knew it was as good as it got.  
  
Ron woke up at the sound of Pig's constant hooting.  
  
"What time is it?" he asked with a slight yawn. Harry looked at his watch.  
  
"10:30," he said.  
  
Ron shot up. "10:30! Wow, everyone else is awake by now!"  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Well, mom, dad, and the people of the Order will be, I don't know about Hermione and Ginny. Or Fred and George for that matter."  
  
"Fred and George aren't in the Order?"  
  
"Nope. Mom was, needless to say, NOT happy when she'd found out that they'd run out of school. She told them that until they could act mature, they couldn't be in the Order."  
  
Harry nodded. Leave it to Mrs. Weasley to put some restriction on that.  
  
By 11 am though, everyone was up and walking around, bored out of their minds. Finally, Fred suggested Quidditch practice in the orchard. Hermione took that chance to remind him that she didn't play Quidditch. He told her she'd get it quick enough, and let her borrow Charlie's old broom.  
  
Quidditch took most of the afternoon, and Hermione did get it quick enough, but she was nowhere near the skill of the rest, who had been playing for years.  
  
When they arrived back home, sweaty and tired, they were met by Mrs. Weasley flinging herself over to them.  
  
"You're ok!!!" she screamed.  
  
Everyone gave her a strange look.  
  
"Of course we're ok," Ron said cautiously. "Why wouldn't we be?"  
  
Mrs. Weasley dissolved into sobs again, and then turned furious.  
  
"You-gone-no note-you could have been taken-killed-" And that was all Harry could make out before she began crying hysterically again.  
  
"Mom?" Fred asked, and Harry detected a note of worry in his voice, "Is something wrong? Did something happen?"  
  
His mom shook her head. Harry looked at Ron with his eyebrows raised. Something was up, that was for sure. Ron shrugged.  
  
When she finally let the six of them upstairs, they all went up to Ron's room.  
  
Fred and George Apprated up and sat on Ron's windowsill, while the others filed in, and Harry and Ginny sat on Harry's sleeping bag, and Ron and Hermione sat on Ron's bed.  
  
"So what do you think happened?" George asked.  
  
"What makes you think something happened?" Ron asked.  
  
"Oh come on, Ron," Hermione said, "You're mom was close to going crazy when we came home. SOMETHING happened."  
  
"You don't think You-know-who killed anyone...do you?" Ginny asked.  
  
"He might have, but if he did, I think she would have told us," Fred said.  
  
"That's true."  
  
"So what is it?" Hermione asked.  
  
Harry had been strangely quiet through the conversation, and he was looking at the floor.  
  
Everyone looked at him.  
  
"Harry?" Ron asked.  
  
Harry looked up. "Yes?"  
  
Everyone else shared a glance.  
  
"Has your-er-has your scar hurt at all lately?" he asked  
  
"No more than usual," Harry answered  
  
Everyone let out a sigh. If Voldemort had killed someone, they would all have known because Harry would have known.  
  
"Maybe someone in the Order has been taken?" Ginny suggested.  
  
"We'd have known," Harry said.  
  
"It's most likely that we left and didn't tell her where we were going, and she got paranoid and thought that Voldemort"- the Weasleys flinched at that- "had taken us." Hermione said.  
  
Everyone more or less agreed that that could have been it, everyone but Harry, who hadn't much been listening to the conversation. Once Mrs. Weasley had come at them crying, he'd thought that the worst of his fears had come. He'd already lost someone who was like family to him-and when she came to them crying...he'd begun wondering if he'd lost another... 


	8. Ashley's other side

Chapter 7  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
Rating: PG or so  
  
A/N: Back with Sirius again! Sorry this chapter is really short. It's a bridge to the next chapter.  
  
JadeMoonWing: with the"..."s situation: solution, or at least on my computer that I could find is that you have to put three sets of "..."s to make one "..." (I think)  
  
After Ashley and I had figured out that I could see everything, and she could hear, we wasted no time figuring out exactly what was going on in the Weasley household. Ron and Hermione were going out, which made Harry jealous. Fred and George weren't allowed in the order, and Mrs. Weasley was very worried over-something.  
  
That was the one thing we couldn't figure out. There was a time when the four Weasleys, Harry and Hermione had gone to play Quidditch, and they came home and she was crying because she thought that she'd lost them.  
  
It was rather weird to watch them...and half the time have no idea what they were talking about. Every once in awhile, I'd seen Lupin, Tonks, or Mad-Eye there. Every time I saw them there, I noticed that Harry made himself scarce.  
  
Ashley noticed that Ron was beginning to have feelings of frustration because Harry was being so distant. Harry was beginning to fall into spots of depression.  
  
Ashley and I meanwhile, were becoming quite good friends. It almost all came to an end one night though. It was late, almost midnight, and I was going to go to the bathroom, and go to bed. How was I supposed to know that our rooms adjoined with a bathroom in the middle?!  
  
Well...the point is I DIDN'T know. I thought Ashley was going to have a heart-attack, when I walked in on her, drying her hair, clad in only a towel. She screamed so loudly, I thought she was going to wake the dead- literally. I jumped about eight miles and slammed the door quite quickly.  
  
After she'd thrown on a shirt and a skirt, she ran into my room, and almost gave me a heart attack screaming at me for about five minutes straight,  
  
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU DOING IN THERE?! HOW DID YOU GET IN THERE?! WHY DID YOU WALK IN ON ME?!" and so on for awhile.  
  
When she stopped, I finally managed to say, very weakly I might add, as Ashley had just scared me out of my wits (she definitely had two different sides to her), "I didn't know that our rooms connected."  
  
"You didn't KNOW?!"  
  
"Do you honestly think I would have walked in on you otherwise?!"  
  
She stopped and thought about it for awhile.  
  
"Look, Ash, I'm sorry. If it helps any, you're really pretty," I managed with a little difficulty. I never was one to charm people, or compliment them at the very least.  
  
She blushed a bit. "Thanks," she said  
  
"No problem"  
  
She turned to go then, and as she neared the bathroom door, she turned around, and said in a VERY fierce voice, "DO NOT walk in on me again! Knock first!"  
  
I nodded. I definitely did not want to see Ashley to go all scary again.  
  
Otherwise we were the best of friends, and whenever she wanted to tease me, she brought up the way my face looked when she's tapped my on the shoulder on earth. When I felt like giving her a taste of her own medicine, I'd tell her what her face looked like when I told her she was pretty.  
  
And once I'd been done describing how amazingly red she'd become, she was amazingly red.  
  
We watched Harry and Ron everyday, and we witnessed Ron and Hermione's first kiss...on the front lawn of the Weasley's house.  
  
We saw a lot those first couple weeks. But it was in July, on Harry's birthday, that things really got interesting... 


	9. Birthday Wish

Chapter 8  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: So sorry for not updating soon! There were thunderstorms, and then I was out one night...anyway...skipping head for a couple weeks...it's the weeks before Harry's birthday. And to all who asked what connection Ashley has with Ron, the only thing I will say is that it will all be explained in good time.  
  
Harry woke up on the day exactly a week before his birthday, to Ron standing over him, shaking him awake.  
  
"Harry! Harry! Are you ok?"  
  
Harry opened his eyes and said, "What?  
  
Ron gave him a strange look. "You were muttering in your sleep."  
  
Harry sat up groggily, and said, "Dreams."  
  
Ron went pale.  
  
"Like, the kind that You-Know-Who sends you?"  
  
"No. Just...reliving things."  
  
"What things-oh..." he said, suddenly realizing.  
  
Harry nodded. He'd dreamed about the night Sirius died plenty of times. Every time, though, he was always woken up the second his godfather had fallen through the veil.  
  
Ron looked at a clock. "It's ten am anyway, you should probably get up."  
  
Harry nodded and stood up. He was just about to get changed, when Hermione came in, fully dressed.  
  
"Hi Harry," she'd said.  
  
"Hi, Ron" she said.  
  
"Hey," he answered, going over and kissing her. Harry politely looked away, a small wave of jealousy washing over him. It was nothing compared to when Ginny and him had witnessed their first kiss.  
  
He'd been talking to Ginny in Ron's room, when the conversation had fallen silent. Through the open window they heard two people talking on the front lawn. They snuck over and ducked by the window to listen  
  
"What's up?" Ron asked.  
  
"Nothing much," Hermione had answered.  
  
Ron had looked over to her, and going slightly red at the ears, something he hadn't done in ages, said, "You're really beautiful, you know."  
  
Hermione brushed a lock of her hair out of her face, and said, "Oh come on, Ron, you know flattery will get you nowhere."  
  
He smiled at her, and said, "Yeah, I know, I just wanted to tell you."  
  
She'd smiled back at him, and put her hand on his shoulder. Then she pulled him in, and kissed him, making both Harry and Ginny gasp for some reason. Never before then had Harry felt more jealous. Never before had he felt more depressed. But that had been two or three weeks ago. He and Ron were still friends, as were him and Hermione. Nothing was ever going to change that. In fact, he'd found that Ginny was a good friend too.  
  
Hermione and Ron went down stairs to let Harry change, and then he joined them. Mrs. Weasley had left some breakfast things on the table, and Harry helped himself to a banana. After that , Ron, Hermione and him either went up to the paddock/orchard behind the house, or they did their summer schoolwork outside.  
  
And that's how days were at the Weasleys. Everything was very relaxed, and laid back. Harry was finally glad to be in a house so unlike the Dursleys, that he could forget about them all together, and pretend he'd lived in a wizarding household all his life.  
  
That night at dinner, Mrs. Weasley brought up the subject of Harry's birthday.  
  
"So, next week is your birthday, Harry?"  
  
Harry looked up in shock. He was not used to people remembering his birthday and bringing it up to him a week in advance.  
  
"Yes," he replied.  
  
"We should do something," Ginny said.  
  
"Of course we will," Mrs. Weasley said.  
  
"You don't have to-" Harry began.  
  
"Of course we do," she answered, "It's you're birthday. We can't do anything huge. Just a small gathering of all of us here." She gestured at the entire Weasley family at the table (Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, Mr. And herself) and Hermione.  
  
Harry smiled. It was to be his first ever birthday party.  
  
The day of his birthday, he woke up early. He never remembered waking up so early on his birthday before, for him it was always just another day.  
  
He saw that Ron was already out of bad, and when he walked downstairs, he saw that the living room was decorated with confetti that kept re-throwing itself in the air whenever it hit the ground, and a sign that said, "Happy Birthday Harry!" and changed colors while playing "Happy birthday to You".  
  
Ron and Hermione ran into the room, Hermione hugged him, and Ron shook his hand. Mrs. Weasley walked in and gave him the most bone-breaking hug that he'd ever been given, baring any hug that Hagrid had ever given him. Mr. Weasley had the same manner as Ron. Ginny smiled sweetly, and Fred George grinned from across the room. They were tapping their wands against the cake.  
  
Pretty soon, everyone had handed him a present. Ron had given him a large basket of Honeydukes candy. Hermione gave him a book titled "Great Quidditch Players of the 21st Century". Ginny gave him a Weird Sisters CD. Fred and George gave him twenty-five 50% off coupons for anything in their shop. The gift from Mr. And Mrs. Weasley was a pair of black knitted mittens, and homemade fudge.  
  
Everyone had stayed home that day. They talked and joked and laughed, and had a special dinner in Harry's honor, that Fred and George made a very funny, but also very nice, toast to Harry.  
  
They ended the evening with a show of Fred and George bringing the cake over, the icing flashing many different colors. There were seventeen candles on the cake, one was for good luck. Hermione looked at him, and just before he blew out the candles, she said, "Make a wish!"  
  
The Weasley's looked at her like she was out of her mind, and she just smiled and said, "Muggle tradition." Harry shut his eyes and wished, and blew out all the candles. Everyone got a slice of cake, and then was told by Mrs. Weasley to go off to bed.  
  
Harry grinned as Ron shut out the lights. He knew what he wished for might never come true, but if it did, he'd be extremely happy. When Ron asked Harry what he wished for, Harry didn't tell him, because, even though wishing on birthday candles, to him, was a silly thing to believe in, he still wanted to keep this one wish to himself.  
  
He'd wished that he would someday see Sirius again. 


	10. Mirrors

Chapter 9  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: In this chapter we will finally see what you have all been waiting for...and if you don't know what that is...read on to find out! Also, the html thing isn't working.so wherever you see little is it's supposed to be italicized, and that's Sirius writing to Harry.  
  
I woke up the day after Harry's birthday, wishing that I could have been down there. I'd decided not to go, to just stay up here and watch. And watch I did. Ashley was with me, as she always was.  
  
The Weasleys and Hermione had just given Harry the best birthday party of his life. He'd felt so content when he'd fallen asleep that night; it almost made me rest easier. The only thing I wondered about was what he had wished for. He hadn't said it out loud, so Ashley couldn't hear it, and I couldn't read his thoughts, so I never knew.  
  
The day after his birthday, he was sitting alone in Ron's room, reviewing the day before in his head. The rest of the Weasleys (except for Ron) were out. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny had gone to Diagon Alley to buy supplies, and everyone else was at work.  
  
Ron and Hermione were downstairs, talking, and Harry had snuck upstairs.  
  
Ashley had come to me that morning, and said, "You know, wouldn't it be easier to hear them if that mirror worked?"  
  
I'd almost forgotten about the mirror.  
  
"Yes," I admitted.  
  
"Maybe, somehow we should tell him to repair it, then."  
  
"How?" I asked. For what I knew, he couldn't hear me.  
  
She took a deep breath, and said, "I think it's time for another trip down."  
  
I nodded, and we went to Nick.  
  
This time as we were falling, I held onto Ashley. We had to fall through a window, and I knew that Ashley wasn't exactly keen on falling. Then again, neither would I be, if that had been the way that I died.  
  
The trips seemed to get shorter and shorter each time we went down. This time it took about three minutes. When we were approaching the window, we both leaned toward it, and then a horrible thought struck me.  
  
"Ashley! What if it's not open?!"  
  
She went slightly pale, and just said, "I hope it is."  
  
Thankfully, the window was open, and we fell through and hit the floor with a THUD.  
  
I'd fallen over her, and she was struggling to get up. I managed to half prop myself up on my elbows, and then I looked down at her, and said, "Are you ok?"  
  
She met my gaze evenly, and said, "Fine."  
  
I found it very hard to look away, until she said, "Sirius?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Can you get off me now? My leg kinda hurts..."  
  
"Oh! Yeah! Sure!" I said, wondering how exactly I'd lost myself in her eyes. I stood up and pulled her to her feet.  
  
"How do we get through to him?" she whispered looking over at Harry.  
  
That's when I realized that everything that had just gone on, had gone on right in front of my godson. Not that he could see, but still.  
  
"Search me," I whispered back, then I realized something, "Why are we whispering? No one can hear us..."  
  
She smiled. "Nerves," she said. I nodded. I knew what she meant.  
  
I looked around the room. There had to be something that we could use...  
  
My eyes fell on a roll of parchment and a quill and ink. I suddenly got an idea.  
  
"Ash," I said, "We can WRITE to him."  
  
She grinned.  
  
I walked over to the inkbottle and parchment, and picked up the quill. I wrote one word.  
  
i Harry.i  
  
He heard the scratching on the quill behind him, and said, "Hello, Ron, are you doing more school work?"  
  
"I'm not Ron, thank you very much," I said, knowing he couldn't hear me. Ashley laughed.  
  
When Ron didn't answer, he turned around, and saw the quill floating in midair. He screamed.  
  
Ron and Hermione were up in two seconds flat.  
  
"What happened?!" they yelled. Harry pointed at the quill, which I still had standing straight up. Ron's eyes went wide, and Hermione clapped her hands to her mouth.  
  
iHarry, Ron, Hermione, calm down!i I wrote.  
  
"It knows our names, we're done for," Ron muttered.  
  
iYou aren't done for; we're trying to help you.i  
  
"There's more than ONE of you?!" Hermione said.  
  
iThere's two of us.i  
  
Harry managed to find his voice.  
  
"What-Who are you?!"  
  
I took a deep breath and turned to Ashley. "This is it," I muttered.  
  
iIt's Sirius, and Ashley Monroe.i  
  
Their eyes widened in shock.  
  
"Sirius?" Harry said, walking a little closer to the quill.  
  
"Harry! Wait!" Hermione screamed. "We don't know it's really Sirius! It could be anything! We can't see it!"  
  
Harry nodded, and stayed where he was.  
  
I began writing again.  
  
iIf you want proof, then repair your mirror, Harry. I don't know why you smashed it in the first place. When you look in the mirror, you'll see me, and you'll see my surroundings.i  
  
Harry ran to his trunk, as Hermione and Ron bombarded him with questions of "What mirror?" and "What is he talking about?"  
  
Harry got the Bertie Botts bag, and dumped it on Ron's bed.  
  
"Hermione," he whispered urgently, "How do you repair something that you still want to have the same magical powers that it had before you repaired it?"  
  
Her voice was shaky, and she said, "Same way as you would a non-magical object, a simple Reparo spell"  
  
Harry nodded and raised his wand, and then pointing it at the mirror, said, "Reparo!"  
  
The pieces snapped together and became whole. He picked it up, and I took mine out of my pocket, and he stuttered, "S-Sirius Black." His face appeared in mine, and his gasp told me my face appeared in him. I waved at him, still holding the quill.  
  
"Oh my gosh," Hermione said, looking at the mirror. "He's really here..."  
  
Ron gasped. We stood there grinning like mad for a few seconds, and then Ashley nudged me. "Harry," I said.  
  
"Yes?" he said.  
  
This was great! We could hear each other! And talk to each other!  
  
"This is Ashley Monroe." I handed the mirror to Ashley, and she said, "Hi."  
  
The three of them said "Hello" back, and as Ashley and I looked through the mirror together, so did they, and finally we could communicate with them.  
  
"Listen, Harry, we're only allowed down here two hours at a time, and our times almost up," I said  
  
"Can I still talk to you when you're up there through the mirror?"  
  
"Yes," I said, then, with a teasing grin said, "What makes you think I went up?"  
  
"Because," Ron answered for him, "Otherwise she wouldn't be with you," he said, gesturing to Ashley, "People aren't that bloody beautiful down there."  
  
Hermione nudged him good-naturedly. It was at that time I felt a slight gust of wind.  
  
"Harry, we're going to have to go very soon, but anytime you need us..."  
  
He nodded, "I'll call," he said. I smiled. Then I remembered one last thing. Right before we were gone from the room, and I had to put the mirror away, and I said, "Your mum and dad say hi!" Then I couldn't see his reaction because Ashley and I were flying away, and I had to put the mirror back in my pocket so I didn't drop it. The feeling that was inside him that day was the most happy he'd been in awhile. He was even more happier than he'd been the night before at his birthday party.  
  
Ashley said that Ron, too, was happier than he'd been in awhile. And I was happier than I'd been in awhile. Now I could finally talk to my godson again, whenever we wanted. And Ashley could talk to Ron, if need be. When we got back up, we walked back to our rooms, and I found that I finally knew what the real feeling of happiness was. It was a feeling that I'd felt faintly when I thought I was free from Azkaban, and that Harry would live with me, but right now, I was absolutely sure that I was the happiest that I'd ever been, alive or dead.  
  
A/N: THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY!!! I WILL BE CONTINUING!!!! 


	11. The Order Minus One

Chapter 10  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: So now that Sirius can contact Harry, we're going to start the beginning of the end of the story. But it's only the BEGINNING of the end.  
  
Harry sat in Ron's room for about an hour by himself. His wish had come true! An impossible wish had come true! Hermione and Ron felt the same as Harry, excited, and now, they felt relieved because Harry was coming out of his depression he'd been in.  
  
Mrs. Weasley hadn't greeted them when they came home from playing Quidditch by crying anymore, and they went to play almost every day. Hermione was getting quite good, and she hinted she might try out for the school team the next year.  
  
The months went by very quickly. Soon, it was the second week of August, and they only had two more weeks of summer before they went back to school. Harry was quite sure that this was the best summer of his life. He would remember every detail of it forever.  
  
Friday, of the second week of August, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione came home to a sobbing Mrs. Weasley again.  
  
This time they couldn't ignore the sobs and shake them off as something petty. Because this time, they noticed that the entire Order of the Phoenix, and Fred and George were crowded in their kitchen, with the same grim expressions. Harry felt his stomach sink to around his knees. He feared the worst had happened.  
  
"What's wrong, Mum?" Ron asked, with a strange, paleish-green expression on his face. Harry looked around the kitchen. Mad-Eye, Tonks, Mrs. Figg, Dumbledore, Mr. And Mrs. Weasley...someone was missing...  
  
At Ron's question, Mrs. Weasley just broke down harder. Mr. Weasley put his arms around her, and answered Ron, straightforwardly.  
  
And even the world's largest pillow couldn't have cushioned the blow that came next.  
  
"They've taken Lupin," he said hoarsely.  
  
Harry's mouth dropped open, and he noticed that Hermione's had done the same. Ron stood there, pale green, and didn't move. Ginny walked over and hugged her mother. There was no need to ask who had taken Lupin.  
  
"Where?" was all Harry could manage.  
  
"We don't know," Tonks said, her own eyes glittering.  
  
"We just know that they took him today, while we were talking by Floo Powder," Mad-Eye said.  
  
Harry was in shock. Not only had his father's best friend been killed, but now his one living connection to his father was taken away, killed, or worse, now that the dementors were on Lord Voldemort's side.  
  
"Harry?" Hermione said, looking at him.  
  
Harry said nothing, and ran upstairs. He grabbed his mirror.  
  
"Sirius Black!" he shouted into it.  
  
Sirius appeared in less than two seconds.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked, picking up the worry on Harry's face.  
  
"They've taken Lupin," he said, "Voldemort has taken Lupin."  
  
Sirius went pale. "Is he...?"  
  
"Dead? We don't know. We don't know where they're hiding him. We need to know. Sirius, please, help us!"  
  
Sirius nodded. "I'll do what I can. I'll try and find where he is. After that I don't know what I can do."  
  
Harry nodded. "Just that will be good enough. Thanks, Sirius."  
  
Sirius was still paler than pale. "Keep holding on Harry," he said, "Don't give up hope."  
  
Harry nodded and put the mirror down. He lay down on his bed, and Ron walked in.  
  
"Harry? Are you ok?"  
  
"I called Sirius."  
  
"And?"  
  
"He's going to try and find where Lupin is. Then..."  
  
"Then?"  
  
"I don't know."  
  
"You're taking this very calmly, Harry," Hermione said.  
  
"I know."  
  
"Are you sure you're ok?" she asked.  
  
Harry nodded. "Yeah...but I just hope we can find him before the full moon."  
  
"Why do you say that?" Ron asked.  
  
"Because, if he transforms, and bites Voldemort, think of how bad Voldemort as a werewolf would be..."  
  
Ron and Hermione nodded. This was not good. 


	12. Searching and Finding

Chapter 11  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter  
  
Rating: PG-PG!# (Or.out of all caps that's pg13.;-)  
  
A/N: So where exactly IS Lupin? Well...after reading this you will know.  
  
I walked toward a telescope, for once without Ashley. I looked in on the Weasley house. The entire Order of the Phoenix was there, or so it seemed.  
  
Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione walked in the door, laughing and talking, but were silenced by the grim mood of the house. I couldn't hear what was going on. I didn't have the hearing, Ashley did.  
  
All I know is the next thing I saw was Harry running up to Ron's room. He grabbed his mirror. This looked serious.  
  
"Sirius Black!" my mirror called up to me. I pulled it out.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked, seeing the grim mood of the Weasley's and seeing his face.  
  
"They've taken Lupin. Voldemort has taken Lupin."  
  
He was very shaken up. And when I heard that, I looked toward the arched entrance. I was waiting for Lupin to show up any second, and the three faithful Marauders to be reunited.  
  
"Is he...?" I couldn't finish my sentence, asking if he was dead. Harry knew hat I wanted to say, though.  
  
"Dead? We don't know! We don't know where they're hiding him, and we need to know! Please help us, Sirius!" he was pleading.  
  
"I'll do what I can. I'll try to find out where he is. After that I don't know what I can do."  
  
"Just that will be good enough, Thank you, Sirius."  
  
"Keep holding on, Harry. Don't give up hope," I answered. Then he put the mirror down.  
  
I ran back to my room. My best friend, and Harry's only living connection to his father was gone. And who knows where?  
  
I walked toward the bathroom, to cross over to Ashley's room. Then I noticed the door closed. I pounded on it.  
  
"ASHLEY!!!!" I yelled.  
  
She practically materialized outside the door.  
  
"WHAT?! You know you could kill a person like that?!"  
  
"Good News, Ashley," I said, remembering when we'd had a conversation like this before, "You're already dead!"  
  
She grinned. "You remembered."  
  
I nodded. Then she caught my expression.  
  
"What's wrong?" she asked.  
  
"Lupin...They've taken away Lupin...an Order of the Phoenix member, and my godson's only living connection to his father. We have to find out where they took him."  
  
"What?!"  
  
I sighed, and patiently explained. "My best friend was taken by Death Eaters. He's a werewolf, and we need to find him."  
  
"Ok, I get that, but what does this have to do with Harry and Ron? And what is the Order of the Phoenix?"  
  
"No time to explain the Order, but this will help Harry and Ron, now come on!"  
  
She walked out the door behind me, and we walked down the hall to Nick's office.  
  
"Nick!"  
  
He smiled. "I was expecting you," he said.  
  
"Ok, that's nice," I said, "We need to find someone."  
  
"How have you been doing on your assignments, and in your dead lives? How close to second death have you come?" he asked, seemingly quite unaware that we were in urgent need to ask him something.  
  
"Er-our dead lives are ok and not too close to second death," Ashley said, glancing at me.  
  
"That's good. How was your last trip down?"  
  
What was this, a tea party?!  
  
"NICK, WE NEED TO ASK YOU WHERE SOMEONE IS!" I said, quite loudly, hoping he would get the point, and cut the friend-you-haven't seen-in-ages act.  
  
"I was getting to that," he said, his eyes sparkling.  
  
I swear he enjoys getting a rise out of me.  
  
"Now, who do you need to find?"  
  
"Remus Lupin," I answered.  
  
He smiled. "I cannot find them for you, but you might try a telescope. They work wonders when you want to find someone."  
  
I grabbed Ashley's hand, not even thinking about it, and I swear, as the two of us ran out of the room, I hear Nick say, "Finally you two," or something like that. I ignored it.  
  
Ashley and I got to the first telescope, and I looked through it. I saw Harry, sitting in Ron's room, talking to Ginny and Hermione.  
  
"This isn't gonna work," she said.  
  
"Nick wouldn't have told us to do this if it didn't work," I pointed out.  
  
"Well, how do we get him to show up?"  
  
"I don't know from a box of Fred and George's trick Wands."  
  
Ashley looked over at me with an arched eyebrow.  
  
"Never mind," I said.  
  
Then, her eyes lit up. She grabbed my wrist. "Maybe it's like the mirrors!" she said.  
  
I hadn't thought of that. That actually made sense.  
  
"Worth a shot," I said. Then I spoke, in a very clear voice to the telescope, "Remus Lupin."  
  
The telescope went blurry. Then, as it changed scenery, I saw a very familiar landscape. A place that I'd never wanted to return to.  
  
"Well, well," I said, "This IS interesting."  
  
"What?" Ashley asked, confused.  
  
I looked at Ashley and quietly said, "The Death Eaters took Lupin to Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place." 


	13. Off to Number 12!

Chapter 12  
  
Rating: PG-PG13 Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or anything associated with it. I don't own Sirius, Hermione, Ron, The Burrow, Hogwarts, or anything the Rowling wrote about. However, I do own Ashley Monroe, who is my character, and Nick, who is also my character.  
  
A/N: Hello! Thank you to all who reviewed! I had a thought when I was reading "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" for the seventh or eighth time two days ago. In the end, Dumbledore says that one day "Harry may be glad that he saved Pettigrew's life". Is this a possible foreshadow? o_O Just a thought.  
  
Harry was sitting in Ron's room, and heard his mirror screaming at him to pick it up, and he did, to find both Sirius and Ashley crammed into the small space.  
  
"Harry! We found Lupin!" Sirius exclaimed.  
  
Harry sat on Ron's bed, and called Ron and Hermione upstairs. Ginny followed them.  
  
"What Harry?" Ron asked  
  
"It's Sirius. He knows where Lupin is."  
  
"It's Sirius?!" Ginny asked, looking thoroughly freaked out.  
  
Hermione quickly explained the situation with the mirrors to Ginny.  
  
Then the four crowded around the mirror. Harry was strongly reminded of the Muggle photo booths that were minute and eight or nine people would cram in and have to be seen in a small lens to take a picture.  
  
"Where is he?" Harry asked.  
  
"Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place," Sirius answered.  
  
"That's impossible!" Harry shrieked, "That's the headquarters of the Order!"  
  
He looked up to find Ron and Ginny shaking their heads.  
  
"It hasn't been since Sirius died," Ron remarked.  
  
"They moved it when they figured out that Kreacher was evil. Mum won't tell us where the new headquarters is," Ginny continued.  
  
Harry nodded. Now things made more sense.  
  
"Harry," Sirius said urgently, "Promise me you won't do anything stupid."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"You know what I mean. Don't rescue Lupin yourself. Tell the adults, and let them get him."  
  
Harry nodded. "Ok," he said.  
  
"I mean it," Sirius answered.  
  
"I know," Harry said.  
  
"We have to go now, but stay out of trouble, and BE CAREFUL!" Ashley said.  
  
The four nodded, and put down the mirror.  
  
"So how do we get there?" Hermione asked.  
  
"What?!" the rest of them said, alarmed.  
  
"How do we get to Grimmauld Place from here?"  
  
"Hermione, we're not going to Grimmauld Place. You heard Sirius, we're supposed to stay right here," Harry said.  
  
"Yes, I heard Sirius, Harry, but we are the only ones who know where Lupin is, and we can help him! No adult is home to get Lupin! It's up to us!" she answered.  
  
Ron nodded. "Yeah, Harry, I think it's us or no one."  
  
Ginny nodded.  
  
Harry grinned. "Let's go!" he said.  
  
The four of them grabbed their broomsticks, and set off for Grimmauld Place, finding that it wasn't as far as they might have thought. Harry's scar burned a bit on the way there, and when they got to be about a block away from Number 12, they landed.  
  
Two corners away from the house, they made up their plan.  
  
"We should just walk in, and find where he is and then get out," Harry said.  
  
Everyone gave him the same look that plainly said, "No kidding?"  
  
"What about the Death Eaters?" Hermione asked.  
  
"What?" Harry asked.  
  
"Come off it, Harry! You honestly think that Lord Voldemort wouldn't have a few Death Eaters guarding their prisoner?"  
  
"What if we called Sirius?" Ron asked.  
  
"Well, first of all, then he'd know that we came, and second of all, what could he do?" Ginny asked.  
  
"He could create a diversion," Harry answered, "And anyway, we can't call him, I left the mirror on Ron's bed."  
  
Hermione's eyes widened. They were really on their own now.  
  
"We know a lot from DA last year," Ginny said.  
  
"We'll be ok," Ron said, almost trying to convince himself.  
  
"Let's go, then," Harry said. The four of them moved quietly forward, and Harry wished he'd thought to bring the Invisibility Cloak.  
  
They reached the house, and found the door was locked. Harry wished that the same effect that happened at Mrs. Figg's house happened again, but it didn't. They ended up climbing in through a window, into the room where they had sprayed the Doxys out of the curtain. Now the only thing left to do was to find Lupin. 


	14. An Almost Kiss

Chapter 13  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any character or setting used in the books.  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: Here we go again now with the Sirius POV. I'm thinking there will only be 2-4 more chapters left, but I'm not sure. There may be more, but probably not less.  
  
"Harry Potter!" I shouted at the mirror. Ashley looked at it over my shoulder.  
  
He appeared.  
  
"Harry! We found Lupin!" I said before he could say anything.  
  
His eyes widened, and he called Ron and Hermione up. Before I knew it, Harry, Ron, Hermione, AND Ginny were looking in the mirror.  
  
"It's Sirius?" Ginny asked, sounding a bit scared.  
  
No, it's the Grim Reaper you idiot, I thought.  
  
Hermione patiently explained about the mirrors, and when that was done, I told Harry where Lupin was.  
  
"That's impossible!" He exclaimed.  
  
Ron and Ginny explained that it was, in fact, possible, and a thought struck me.  
  
"Harry," I said, "Promise me you won't do anything stupid."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"You know what I mean. Don't rescue Lupin yourself. Tell the adults, and let them get him."  
  
"Ok," he said, but his face didn't look serious.  
  
"I mean it," I said.  
  
"I know," he said, looking a bit better. "We have to go now, but stay out of trouble and BE CAREFUL!" Ashley said, almost motheringly.  
  
They put the mirror down, and Ashley and I walked back to my room. I sat down on my bed, and she followed suit.  
  
"You think he's going to go after him?" she asked.  
  
"Undoubtedly," I said.  
  
She nodded, and we sat there in an uncomfortable silence. I couldn't think of anything to say, and I guess it was the same for her, until-  
  
"Sirius, do you really think I'm pretty?"  
  
The question took me very much by surprise. Whatever I thought she might say, this was VERY far from it.  
  
"Yeah," I said, looking at her confused, not knowing where exactly this was going. "Why?"  
  
"Because, you told me you did once, but I couldn't tell if you really meant it, or if you were just trying to get me to not be mad at you anymore."  
  
"No, I meant it," I assured her. She tried to look away before, she smiled, but I saw it anyway. I grinned, and turned her face back toward mine.  
  
"Why are you so smiley?" I asked, teasing.  
  
"What, now I'm not allowed to smile?" She asked, grinning. I noticed we were thisclose.  
  
"It's perfectly fine with me if you smile. I think it lights up your whole face," I said.  
  
She blushed, and we got even closer. We were nose to nose. Her eyes closed, and so did mine. Then-  
  
A blinding pain hit me in the shoulder and forehead. I doubled over. Ashley pulled back.  
  
"Sirius?" she asked, very worried. "What happened?"  
  
I could barely speak for the pain in my forehead, but I managed to rasp out,  
  
"Harry-Ron-in trouble."  
  
Ashley went white. "We have to get down there!" she shrieked.  
  
I nodded. She helped me up, and helped me walk down the hall. My forehead was absolutely burning. I could barely see.  
  
"We have to get to Nick's," she said. I nodded. Another throb of pain went through my left shoulder.  
  
We made it to Nick's office, to find a note on the door. It said, "Gone down to earth for the day! Be back tomorrow!"  
  
"Of all days," I said, shading my eyes. Everything seemed too bright all of a sudden.  
  
"He couldn't have waited for tomorrow?!" Ashley groaned.  
  
"We have to get down there," I said. She nodded.  
  
"We're gonna have to jump," she said.  
  
I almost fell over. Had Ashley not been holding onto me, I would have fallen over.  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
"You heard me. We have to jump. We have to get down there somehow. We'll look at Number 12 through the telescope, and then jump. It's the only way, and you know it."  
  
I nodded, and she ran over to a telescope, practically dragging me behind her.  
  
"Number 12, Grimmauld Place!" she said. We could see it through the telescope. She looked at the wall right in front of us. She put her arms under mine, around my waist, and ran through the wall, and jumped.  
  
We fell, faster than we ever had before. We were down in about a minute.  
  
We also were not at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. We were at the Burrow.  
  
"Dammit!" Ashley yelled. We had to get there somehow. And suddenly, I saw a way how. A Harley was parked right across the street.  
  
"All right!" I muttered. "Ashley, come with me. We got a ticket to Grimmauld Place."  
  
She looked at me questioningly, and I pulled her over to the motorcycle. "You can ride on of these?" she asked. I nodded and handed her a helmet. "Get on," I said, nodding behind me, as I tapped the engine with my wand.  
  
She was not on the back a second, and I was off at about 80 mph. It felt wonderful to be back on a motorcycle again. The pain in my shoulder and head was lessening. Ashley was holding on very tightly, and we made it to Grimmauld Place in very good time. We looked up at the open window, and we climbed up, and looked in. Then-  
  
We fell in through the window, onto the floor. I looked up, and saw Harry and Hermione ducking behind a couch, Ginny screaming, obviously someone had just yelled Crucio, and Ron was out cold against a wall. 


	15. Saving Lupin

Chapter 14  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: And here comes the battle scene! It won't be very good, as I'm not very good at writing action sequences, so it will probably be very short, and very lame, so forgive me if it does not live up to the rest of the story! (I also am writing this chapter at midnight:-/) I tried my best! :- /  
  
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny climbed in the room. Lupin was bound, blindfolded, and gagged in the corner of the room. Harry walked over to him. As he reached into his pocket for his wand, he heard a voice over his shoulder.  
  
"Expelliarmus!" a voice shouted.  
  
Harry's wand flew from his hand, and he looked over ad saw the Ron's, Hermione's, and Ginny's had flown over to Lucius Malfoy, who caught their wands with an open hand.  
  
"I thought I should be seeing you here, Mr. Potter. Couldn't resist another rescue mission, could you? You didn't learn your lesson last time to stay out of business not your own? Sirius didn't teach you your lesson did he?" Malfoy said in a slow, cold voice.  
  
"Let Lupin go!" Ginny screamed. Then Harry was struck with a blinding pain in his forehead, and Malfoy muttered a curse, which hit him in the shoulder. Two other Death Eaters appeared at his side.  
  
All of a sudden, a hoard green and red light was raining down on them, from every direction. None of them were armed, and it was all they could do to just dodge curses.  
  
He heard someone yell "Crucio!" and then Heard Ginny scream. He heard someone yell "Imperio!" and saw Ron run into a wall three or four times, before knocking himself out. Hermione crouched behind the couch, ducking everything.  
  
No one noticed that the curtains on the window had blown in suddenly.  
  
Harry ran behind the couch, and then found that his and Ron's wands was being tossed back to him. He grabbed his wand, and looked over at Hermione. She had her and Ginny's wands, too.  
  
He heard someone yell "Crucio!" again, but didn't see anyone on the floor, writing around, or screaming.  
  
"How?" Hermione asked. Harry grinned. He had a pretty good idea.  
  
He made his way over to Lupin, and whipped out his wand. He took the gag out of his mouth, and pulled the blindfold off.  
  
"Harry?" Lupin asked.  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"How?"  
  
"I'll explain later. We have to get out of here!"  
  
Harry looked around, and noticed that the three Death Eaters were running out of the room, disapparating, screaming. He also noticed that there were things being thrown around by an invisible person. His first thought was, "Ghosts?" Then, suddenly, amazingly, he understood.  
  
Ginny stopped screaming as soon as the last Death Eater disapparated. Ron was looking pale green, and was still out cold against the wall. Ginny stood up shakily. She seemed to be ok, just a little scared.  
  
Hermione got up from behind the couch. She looked over at Ron, and silently began crying. "Is he...?"  
  
Harry shook his head.  
  
"He's breathing," Lupin said.  
  
Ginny looked over at her brother. She took a deep breath. Hermione gave her back her wand.  
  
"We should leave," she said.  
  
Lupin nodded, and levitated Ron out the window, where all of them climbed out.  
  
Hermione turned to Harry at that point, and began laughing.  
  
"What?" Harry asked.  
  
"I'm-I'm-I'm picturing those Death Eaters-running away-from those ghosts in the house-and wondering-what Voldemort-will do to them!" she said, through fits of laughter.  
  
"Gee, Hermione, that's hysterical," Ginny said, very sarcastically.  
  
Suddenly Harry knew why it was funny. Everything was ten times funnier now that they were all out and alive. Laughter was infectious, and soon he was laughing. Then Ginny caught it, and then Lupin. The ride home on their broomsticks, all of them spent laughing as hard as they could, all except Ron, who was out cold up until they landed. Then he woke up, and saw everyone laughing, and asked, "What's so bloody funny?"  
  
Hermione stopped laughing for enough time to pull him into a long kiss, and when they broke away, he said, "Who cares what you're laughing about? It works!"  
  
And then he caught the laughter, and they all walked inside the Burrow, to find an extremely worried Weasley family, and the rest of the Order.  
  
Harry sighed as he looked at their faces. This would certainly take a while to explain.  
  
A/N: I know, that battle was really lame! I've read so much better in other fan fictions, and that does no justice to any battle in the book, but it's the best I can do for the first battle I've ever written! Please be nice in your reviews! 


	16. You can't lose me

Chapter 15  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. I do however, own Ashley and Nick, who are my characters.  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: and now the battle from Sirius and Ashley's POV!  
  
Ashley pulled me up to a stand, and the pain in my forehead and shoulder subsided. I could finally see clearly again. Ashley, who seemed to be ten steps ahead of me, noticed that Lucius Malfoy was holding five wands-four not his own.  
  
She screamed, "Expelliarmus!" And four wands shot out of his hand. Ashley turned around and threw all four wands to Harry and Hermione. Then I heard Lucius yell, "Crucio!" I turned around and saw Ashley, my beautiful Ashley on the floor, twitching and screaming bloody murder.  
  
"ASHLEY!!!!!!!" I yelled, and then did the only thing that seemed humanly possible at the time. I grabbed a vase from the mantle, and threw it, with all my might, at Lucius Malfoy. It hit him on his right shoulder, and he broke the curse. Ashley was on the ground, motionless, her long blonde hair was strewn across her face, her eyes closed, as if in death.  
  
I sat down beside her, and pulled her head into my lap. If she was dead again, I wouldn't know what to do. I shook her, forgetting about the battle. My eyes went a little blurry. Was that tears?  
  
Her eyes fluttered and opened. "Siri-"and that's all she could manage before I pulled her up, and towards me, and I kissed her, for a very long time. I put my hand behind her head to keep her there, and found that she was kissing back, her arms were looped around my neck, her fingers threaded through my hair. We broke away, and she was breathless.  
  
"I thought I'd lost you," I said, my eyes still a bit watery.  
  
"You can't lost me," she whispered slowly, smiling, tears running down her cheeks.  
  
I smiled and kissed her again. That was when we both remembered that we were supposed to be protecting Harry and Ron. I pulled her up, and I kept throwing things at the Death Eaters. She followed suit.  
  
Eventually, they got scared, and disapparated. I guess they thought that the ancient and most noble house of Black was infested with a couple ghosts.  
  
That could come in handy for a while.  
  
After they left, we found that everyone here seemed to be okay, and everyone seemed to be alive. After all, I was pretty sure we would have seen Ron by now, had he been dead.  
  
That was when the gust of wind came to take us back.  
  
When we arrived back up, we were called to Nick's office immediately.  
  
"Hello," he said, greeting us. He looked down at our hands, which were tightly clasped together, and smiled.  
  
"Hi Nick," I said.  
  
"Finally you two are together," he said.  
  
"What?" Ashley asked.  
  
"Never mind, I'll come back to that later. How was the battle?"  
  
"Relatively easy," I said.  
  
"Easy for you to say," Ashley snorted. "No one put you under a curse!"  
  
Nick nodded. "Yes, I saw that...Are you ok Ashley?"  
  
Ashley nodded and grinned. "I'm fine now," she said.  
  
Nick nodded. "Is everyone ok? Lupin? Ron? Harry? Hermione? Ginny?"  
  
We nodded.  
  
So did Nick.  
  
"You were both very brave down there," Nick said.  
  
"I think we've both been through worse," I said. We were dead after all.  
  
Nick shook his head. "You both were protective, and you both were a help. What would they have done had you two not been down there to act like ghosts?"  
  
"Come on, Nick. Guardians go down all the time to protect their charges," Ashley said.  
  
Nick shook his head.  
  
"Only you two have ever done it," was his answer.  
  
Ashley and I looked at each other, silent. Was this true?  
  
Nick nodded. "No other angel up here has ever gone into the heart of the battle, to protect their charges."  
  
Ashley grinned, and so did I.  
  
"So what did you mean by, 'Finally you two?'" I asked.  
  
Nick grinned. "Well, you two were meant to be," he said.  
  
Ashley and I glanced at each other and back at Nick.  
  
"What?" we said at the exact same time.  
  
"Ashley, haven't you ever wondered why you were Ron Weasley's guardian, when you'd never even met him?" Nick asked.  
  
Ashley shrugged.  
  
"It's because I needed you near Sirius. You two were supposed to meet on earth, but Pettigrew made sure that never happened. So, I had to keep you two as close as possible here, so you two could be together."  
  
Suddenly things began to make a whole lot more sense.  
  
Then I noticed that Ashley was yawning.  
  
Nick nodded toward Ashley. "She's been through a lot. You both a dismissed," he said, nodding toward the door. I felt slightly like a little kid in school. We nodded, and walked out. Ashley leaned on me all the way back to my room. I was about to take her to her room, when she shook her head, and pointed to mine. "Nothing's happening tonight," she whispered, smiling slightly, "I just want to sleep."  
  
I knew exactly what she meant. We'd both been through a lot tonight. And as I fell asleep with my arms around her, I knew it was the perfect end to a story.  
  
A/N: Just the epilogue left, hope y'all liked it! 


	17. EPILOGUE!

Epilogue  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it. However, Ashley and Nick are my own characters.  
  
Rating: PG-PG13  
  
A/N: This is it! This is the end!  
  
Harry looked out the window of the Hogwarts Express. Ron, still with a bandage around his head, and Hermione, with her hand in Ron's, were sitting across from him. Ginny was next to him, writing the last couple of sentences in her Potions essay.  
  
Harry remembered last year when they got on the train, and Sirius was there, in his dog form, and began chasing the train. Who knew what was going to happen since then, this time last year? Things sure have changed.  
  
Harry's mind traveled back to last week. After they'd brought Lupin home, everyone wanted to know what happened. They'd explained how they'd gotten there, what happened, and how they'd gotten back. None of the kids gave the ghosts a name. Ron wasn't awake enough to know who they were, and Hermione still couldn't figure out who they were, which surprised Harry very much.  
  
Now everyone in the Order was all right, for the time being. Harry had talked to Sirius and Ashley a couple times since the battle, and it seemed that they were together. He was glad that everything had turned out ok in the end, but he couldn't help but wonder what was to come next.  
  
"Harry?" he heard a voice calling him back to earth, as the train began moving  
  
"Yes?" he asked.  
  
"Just wondering where you were," Hermione said.  
  
"Zoning out," he said.  
  
Ginny nodded. "Thinking about the battle?" she asked.  
  
Harry nodded. Ginny didn't miss much from him anymore.  
  
"There's still one thing I don't understand," Hermione said.  
  
"Who the ghosts were?" Harry said, grinning. Her knew it would be only a matter of time until Hermione asked him this.  
  
"How did you know?" she asked.  
  
Harry grinned, "I figured you would ask sooner or later. The "ghosts" were really angels. Guardian angels. Sirius and Ashley came down to guard us."  
  
"How did they know to come down?" Ron asked.  
  
Harry shrugged. "Sirius didn't tell me that. He said that when it was my time to be up there, and I had to guard someone, I'd know."  
  
"Sure, more of this, 'wait until you're older' stuff," Ron said, "You know the last time someone told you to wait and find something out when you were older, someone ended up dead?"  
  
Harry nodded. "I know," he said.  
  
The witch with the food cart came around then, and all talk of the battle seized. Ron took out a set of Gobstones, and everyone sat on the floor and began a game. And that was the extent of the serious conversation for the rest of the ride.  
  
Ashley and I followed the train as it went to Hogwarts. She had one of her hands slipped through mine, and with the other hand she was cupping her ear, desperately trying to hear what was going on. Her ability to hear them got a little weaker when she was cursed. It was getting batter, but wasn't anywhere near what it used to be.  
  
I'd been ok, my seeing had gotten slightly worse since I felt Harry's curse. Ashley had asked me something one day, that really we couldn't find a very logical answer too, but we came up with one that was satisfying enough.  
  
"How come you felt when Harry was cursed, and I didn't feel anything when Ron was?" she asked me.  
  
I thought for a bit.  
  
"The only thing I can think of, is that I have a connection with Harry. I've met him before, and we were pretty close. You've never met Ron, you heard Nick, you were Ron's guardian because you had a connection to me."  
  
Ashley nodded.  
  
"I guess. It still doesn't make much sense, though."  
  
I nodded. It was something we silently agreed not to ask Nick. We figured we'd seen enough of him already. A little mystery in life is good, even in the life after life.  
  
The train made it to Hogsmeade station, and we stopped watching, and walked back to my room.  
  
"You think they'll have a better year than last year?"  
  
"I hope so," I answered, putting my arm around her.  
  
"I hope I have a better year than last year, too," she said.  
  
"We'll have to see what comes our way," I said, and she tightened her grip around my hand.  
  
"Yeah, we'll see," she said, and as we looked back down at the earth, I saw Harry look up at the sky, and nod to say, "Thanks".  
  
~FIN~  
  
A/N: I'm leaving it there I don't think I'm going to be writing a sequel. I don't have any ideas for one right now, but if in a couple days...weeks...or months I ever come up with a good idea, I'll write a sequel. Sorry to the ppl that told me to email them, or emailed me on their own, but I don't talk to ppl I don't know online, and I don't open emails with addresses I doon't know online. And Thank you thank you thank you one last and final time to my reviewers! I hope you liked it!!! I had a lot of fun writing it, and it helped me get through this whole Sirius death thing. So I guess that's all for me to say! See y'all! 


	18. YOU'RE GONNA WANT TO READ THIS AN!

A/N: OH YEAH SEQUEL COMING SOON!!!!!!!!!!! That's right.sequel to "The Guardian" should be up in a couple days!!! It's gonna be called "Christmas Break" and is going to be Romance/Drama instead of Action/Adventure, cause I can't write battle scenes for anything! Annnnnyyyywaaaayyyy.I'll see everyone then, and thank you thank you thank you one last time to my reviewers!!!! 


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